Increases in Sales Rank as a Measure of Interest

1. A computer-implemented method for displaying information about items available from a web site, comprising: for each of a plurality of time periods, determining a consumption ranking, in which a rank value is attributed to at least a subset of items available from the web site, each rank value reflecting a rate of consumption by visitors of the web site for the corresponding item during the current time period, a smaller consumption ranking reflecting a higher rate of consumption than a larger consumption ranking; selecting items having a current rank value that does not exceed a rank value threshold and for which the consumption rate during the current time period exceeds a consumption threshold; for each selected item: identifying a first and second rank value for the selected item for a predetermined number of time periods immediately preceding the current time period, the first rank value corresponding to a rank value of the selected item at a first time period preceding the current time period and the second rank value corresponding to a rank value of the selected item at a second time period preceding the current time period; determining scores for the selected item based upon the current rank value of the selected item and the first and second rank value of the selected item, the scores characterizing the change in consumption ranking undergone by the selected item; and generating a display showing, for at least a portion of the selected items, an indication of the score determined for each item; and wherein the method is performed by a computer system.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the items are books and the consumption rate for book items reflects visitors searching inside book items.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the items are musical compilations and the consumption rate for musical compilations reflects visitors listening to clips of songs that are part of musical compilations.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the items are auction items and the consumption rate reflects auction bids for auction items.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the consumption reflects subscriptions for items.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the consumption reflects visitors requesting samples of items.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the consumption rate reflects visitors rating items.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the consumption rate reflects visitors receiving search results containing items.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein each item is a product available for purchase from the web site.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the score determined for each selected item is the difference between the largest rank value of the selected item and the current rank value of the selected item, divided by the largest rank value of the selected item.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the score determined for each selected item is the difference between the largest rank value of the selected item and the current rank value of the selected item, divided by the current rank value of the selected item.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating the method for each of a plurality of item categories.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein all of the time periods have substantially equal length.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the items are displayed in the order of their scores.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting the generated display to a visitor of the web site.

16. A computer-readable medium having instructions to cause a computing system to display information about items available from a web site comprising: for each of a plurality of time periods, determining a consumption ranking, in which a rank value is attributed to at least a subset of items available from the web site, each rank value reflecting a rate of consumption by visitors of the web site for the corresponding item during the current time period, a smaller consumption ranking reflecting a higher rate of consumption than a larger consumption ranking; selecting items having a current rank value that does not exceed a rank value threshold and for which the consumption rate during the current time period exceeds a consumption threshold; for each selected item; identifying a largest rank value from among the rank values of the selected item for a predetermined number of time periods immediately preceding the current time period, the largest rank value of each selected item being associated with a different time period from a largest rank value associated with another selected item; determining a score for the selected item based upon the current rank value of the selected item and the largest rank value of the selected item, the score characterizing the decrease in consumption ranking undergone by the selected item; and generating a display showing, for at least a portion of the selected items, an indication of the score determined for each item.

17. A computing system for displaying consumption information about items, comprising: a scoring subsystem that, from a current consumption ranking for each of a plurality of items and one or more previous consumption rankings for each of the plurality of items, the current consumption ranking reflecting the rate of consumption of each item during a recent distinguished time period and the previous consumption rankings reflecting the rate of consumption of each item during one or more time periods preceding the distinguished time period, a smaller consumption ranking reflecting a higher rate of consumption than a larger consumption ranking, attributes to at least a portion of the plurality of items a score characterizing the change in the consumption ranking of the item between the current consumption ranking and the one or more previous consumption rankings; and a display generation subsystem that generates a display incorporating indications of at least a portion of the attributed scores, together with indications of the corresponding items.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the portion of the plurality of items does not include items with a current consumption ranking that does not satisfy a threshold.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein the portion of the plurality of items does not include items for which less than a threshold number of items were consumed during a current distinguished time period.

20. A computer-implemented method for displaying ordering information about items ordered from a source, comprising: determining an ordering ranking, in which a rank value is attributed to at least a subset of items that may be ordered from the source, each rank value reflecting the number of orders placed for the corresponding item during the current time period, a smaller rank value reflecting a larger number of orders than a larger rank value; selecting items having a current rank value that is less than a rank value threshold and for which more than a threshold number of orders were placed during the current time period; for a first selected item: identifying a rank value for the first selected item for a predetermined first time periods preceding the current time period; determing a score for the selected item based upon the current rank value of the first selected item and the identified rank value of the first selected item, the score characterizing the change in ordering ranking undergone by the selected item; for a next selected item: identifying a rank value for the next selected item for a predetermined next time period preceding the current time period, the predetermined next time period different than the predetermined first time period; determining a score for the next selected item based upon the current rank value of the next selected item and the identified rank value of the next selected item, the score characterizing the change in ordering ranking undergone by the next selected item; and generating a display showing, for at least a portion of the selected items, an indication of the score determined for the selected item; and wherein the method is performed by a computer system.